LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel

Author: Yann Martel

Publisher: Penguin

Format: pdf

Language: English

ISBN10: 0143028480

Page: 216

ISBN13: 9780143028482



Life Of Pi is the story of Pi, a young boy hailing from Pondicherry, India. Through his adventures while stranded out at the sea, the book metaphorically tackles the topics of religion, spirituality, and practicality. It is set in the late 1970s, and presents real events and places in India.

The book is divided into three sections. In the first section, the protagonist Pi, recounts his childhood days. He was born Piscine Molitor Patel, named after a certain swimming pool in the country of France. Tired of being relentlessly ridiculed as “Pissing Patel”, Piscine shortens his name to Pi while in secondary school.





Pi’s father owns a zoo in Pondicherry, and as a family, they lead a fairly affluent life. In addition to his birth religion of Hinduism, Pi follows Islam and Christianity, seeking to love god through all three religions.





In the second section of the book, Pi’s father decides to move to Canada with his family, to escape the political scenario in India. The family embarks on a journey to Canada aboard a compact Japanese freighter. They also have some of the residents of their zoo in tow.





Just a few days into their journey, disaster strikes in the form of a violent storm. Their ship sinks, leaving behind an odd assortment of survivors: Pi, a limp zebra, a female orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. The five of them are stranded on a lifeboat, cast adrift in the untamed waters of the Pacific.



Guided by strong survival instincts, each one of them does whatever it takes to don the mantle of the alpha animal. Eventually, it’s a face-off between the fittest, and the outcome could swing either way.



The third section focuses on the conversation of two Japanese maritime officials as they try to ascertain the cause of the shipwreck.



After being rejected by five publishing houses, Life Of Pi was published in September 2001 by Knopf Canada. It has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. It has also won several awards, including the Man Booker Prize for Fiction (2002), and the Asian/Pacific American award For Literature in the Best Adult Fiction category (2001-2003). An illustrated edition of the book was released in September 2007. The film adaptation, directed by Ang Lee, is scheduled for a November 2012 release